Recent Updates
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Court: Mask rule OK at Iowa schools with disabled students
Court Watch 02/05/2022A federal appeals court on Tuesday allowed the state of Iowa to enforce a law that prevents local schools from imposing mask mandates, except for schools attended by students whose disabilities make them more vulnerable to severe illness if they get ...
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Palin COVID-19 tests delay libel trial against NY Times
Court Watch 01/26/2022An unvaccinated former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin tested positive for COVID-19 Monday, forcing a postponement of a trial in her libel lawsuit against The New York Times. The Republican’s positive test was announced in court just as jury selection ...
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Judge sides with Alaska attorney who alleged wrongful firing
Court Watch 01/21/2022A U.S. judge sided Thursday with an attorney who alleged she was wrongly fired by the state of Alaska over political opinions expressed on a personal blog. U.S. District Court Judge John Sedwick ruled that Elizabeth Bakalar’s December 2018 firi...
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Some Michigan counties pause jury trials amid COVID surge
Court Watch 01/18/2022Jury trials have been paused in some western Michigan counties due to a surge in coronavirus cases, court officials said Monday. Chief Judge Mark Trusock said all jury trials in Kent County 17th Circuit Court, based in Grand Rapids, were on hold unti...
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Partisan letters cost long-serving Alaska magistrate his job
Court Watch 01/11/2022The longest serving magistrate in Alaska is no longer on the bench after writing letters to the editor critical of the Republican party. Former Seward Magistrate George Peck wrote four letters to the editor of the Anchorage Daily News, the latest in ...
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Cobb County jury trials paused as COVID-19 spreads
Court Watch 01/08/2022As COVID-19 cases continue rising across the state of Georgia, the court system in one of its counties has decided to pause jury trials. Cobb County Superior Court Judge Robert D. Leonard issued an order Monday to cancel trial jurors through Jan. 21,...
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Griffis beginning 8-year term on Mississippi Supreme Court
Court Watch 01/03/2022The Mississippi Supreme Court is holding a ceremony Monday for Justice Kenny Griffis to begin a new term of office. Griffis served 16 years on the state Court of Appeals. In February 2019, then-Gov. Phil Bryant appointed him to fill an open seat on t...
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Sarah Weddington, lawyer who argued Roe v. Wade, dies at 76
Court Watch 12/26/2021Sarah Weddington, a Texas lawyer who as a 26-year-old successfully argued the landmark abortion rights case Roe v. Wade before the U.S. Supreme Court, died Sunday. She was 76.Susan Hays, Weddington’s former student and colleague, said she died ...
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Enbridge seeks federal jurisdiction in oil pipeline dispute
Court Watch 12/17/2021The Canadian company argued that a 2019 lawsuit filed in a state court by Attorney General Dana Nessel should be heard by U.S. District Judge Janet Neff, who last month retained jurisdiction over a separate case initiated by the state of Michigan to ...
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Court won’t stop Texas abortion ban, but lets clinics sue
Court Watch 12/10/2021The Supreme Court on Friday left in place Texas’ ban on most abortions, offering only a glimmer of daylight for clinics in the state to challenge the nation’s most restrictive abortion law. The decision, little more than a week after the ...
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Italy frees man convicted of 2007 murder of Meredith Kercher
Court Watch 11/28/2021The only person convicted in the 2007 murder of British student Meredith Kercher was freed Tuesday after serving most of his 16-year prison sentence, his lawyer said. Attorney Fabrizio Ballarini said Rudy Guede’s planned Jan. 4 release had been...
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Washington seeks over $38 billion from opioid distributors
Court Watch 11/16/2021After rejecting a half-billion-dollar settlement, Washington Attorney General Bob Ferguson on Monday took the state’s case against the nation’s three biggest drug distributors to trial, saying they must be held accountable for their role ...